Today, Adiri appears poised to make a major breakthrough. This summer it arranged to sell its bottle at Babies “R” Us, and a few weeks ago, it heard from Whole Foods, the supermarket chain, and Right Start, the baby products company.

Seemingly overnight, Adiri, run by Ms. Morrill and two other women, is facing the challenges of a much larger company. Like many small businesses that hit the big time, Adiri will survive if it can cope with the shifts in scope and scale that accompany success.

These days, the company is cranking out baby bottles as fast as it can, directing operations from its small windowless quarters in Palo Alto, Calif. It is negotiating new contracts with suppliers, expanding Adiri’s network of distributors, developing a sturdier package and accelerating manufacturing schedules.

“The biggest problem for us is inventory,” said Beth Shvodian, Adiri’s president. “It’s a good problem to have, but it’s a challenge.”

Setting out to find a new manufacturer, Ms. Morrill, the company’s chief executive, ventured to China and Taiwan. In the end, even though a Chinese manufacturer offered by far the lowest bid, she chose to make the product in Taiwan to avoid potential issues associated with manufacturing in China, like low wages and pollution.

The deal with Babies “R” Us has also meant Adiri needed to have a second mold created — an expensive proposition for a company financed entirely by the three employees and small investments from friends and family members.

The company is forecasting sales will grow twelvefold from 2007 to 2008, though Ms. Morrill thinks that number is probably conservative. She expects the company to become profitable in a year to 15 months.

Ms. Morrill is trying to avoid bringing in other investors in order to keep control, in part to honor her father’s wishes. The women don’t draw a salary for the long hours they put in, though they all have received company stock. If everything goes well, they expect to start being paid next spring.

They will also outgrow their space, Ms. Morrill predicted. For now the team depends on a network of independent contractors working from home. They help maintain the company’s Web site, write advertising copy and do bookkeeping.

The demand for the Adiri bottle comes not just from Babies “R” Us, but from mothers who want to supplement their breast-feeding and prevent colic, which can sometimes be associated with baby bottles.

Photo

SMALL SIPS The Adiri bottle is covered in a layer of soft plastic.Credit
Jim Wilson/The New York Times

The bottle’s fans also include pediatricians, hospitals and nursing specialists.

Dr. Leslie Ostrander, a pediatrician in San Jose, Calif., sees a lot of patients suffering from colic and other discomforts that seem to get worse with bottle-feeding, and she often recommends they try the Adiri nurser.

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The bottle also appeals to parents who are concerned about potential environmental toxins. At a time when some plastic materials are under attack for potentially leaching harmful substances into the liquid they contain, Adiri says that its products are made from polycarbonate-free plastic.

The original Adiri BreastBottle Nurser, invented by Ms. Morrill’s father, John Prentiss, looked like a flattened dome with a nipple and was made of soft plastic. Mr. Prentiss received a utility patent on the design and began selling the product in 2000.

A loyal customer base among medical professionals and hospitals sprang up. This group didn’t mind that the bottle looked odd, cost $18 and was difficult to assemble.

But when Ms. Morrill took over as chief executive, she, Ms. Shvodian and Sarah Eisner, vice president of sales and marketing, put their heads together and concluded that the bottle would never sell widely in retail stores.

Changing the design was Ms. Morrill’s first executive decision. Using the proceeds from her father’s life insurance policy, she and her team hired an industrial designer and came up with an entirely new look. The final product is a cross between the original breastlike design and a conventional cylindrical baby bottle, all covered with a layer of soft plastic.

Adiri stopped making the original bottles earlier this year and began shipping three models of the bottle based on the new design in August. At $12.50, it is still 10 times the price of a standard plastic bottle, so the company’s immediate plan was to sell the bottle through Adiri’s Web site, on a few other independent sites and in boutiques.

That was until representatives from Babies “R” Us approached the Adiri staff at the company’s booth at the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association trade show in April. By February, if all goes according to plan, the Adiri nurser will be on sale in hundreds of Babies “R” Us stores.

“We have an enormous need to fill,” Ms. Morrill said.

Jamie Beal, a spokeswoman for Babies “R” Us, said that the company’s buyers liked the design of the Adiri bottles, which “promote easy transition between breast-feeding and bottle.” And other polycarbonate-free baby bottles already sell well at the company’s stores, she added.

Ms. Morrill said that in the beginning she did not take her father’s invention too seriously.

Mr. Prentiss, an inventor, got the idea for the breastlike bottle in 1998 when he noticed the unnatural design of the bottle a friend was using to feed an infant. The idea arose less from her father’s desire to help nursing mothers than the recognition of a business opportunity, Ms. Morrill said.

When her father first told her about his idea, Ms. Morrill said, she thought it was another brainstorm of his. “The year before he had invented a wind generator,” she said.

But she has been proven wrong, and amid the production issues and expanding, she and her two fellow executives answer customer service calls, talking to the often sleep-deprived new mothers who are their customers. They know that good customer service is critical to getting the word out.

“We try to be very cognizant of the fact that we’re dealing with people who are highly sensitive,” Ms. Morrill said.

The approach is working. Alicia Voorhies, a nurse and president of Soft Landing, an online store devoted to selling nature-friendly baby supplies, says buzz about the Adiri is generating a lot of interest from her customers.

“Demand is huge,” Ms. Voorhies said. “We can’t keep it in stock.” Adiri has told her they won’t be able to get another shipment to her until December. Meanwhile, she gets four to five calls a day from mothers wanting to buy it and is keeping a list. “I’m just hoping we get them in before Christmas.”